This isnt meant to be personal , BUT contractors like to read potential clients , at the first sign that they are looking to get work done cheaply , most real contractors wont bother .  

Have the property foreclosed on and destroy their credit for 7 years.2.)

You can completely destroy any deal if the repair bills start to come in and you didn't plan for it. 

I'm having a tough time finding a contractor that wont bankrupt me with their estimates.

If there are already 4 units being rented, you wont be able to rent out yours..I also would look to see if it actually counts as a rental if you "rent" out a room.

Maybe but I'm pretty sure that will destroy your credit and make future investing with financing very difficult for you for a long time.

You will need to make sure you work with your accountant with a checkbook LLC as your IRA administrator most likely wont see all your transactions and keep the records. 

Destroy your goals.

Is all the furniture outside temporarily for a painting or move in (the couch wont go through.

THis will make a difference to your tax treatment, meaning single member wont necessarily trigger "ordinary income" as a multi-member would - Im NOT an accountant, but did just last week setup a couple more entities and made some changes to an existing one.One other suggestion - PA has a 2% transfer tax (1% to buyer, 1% to seller) that you want to keep in mind).